PixelCATALYST . Scribbles . The Creation of Pandora

Did you ever find yourself doodling horns, thorns or fangs in pictures of someone you're sort off angry with at some moment in your life? When you're reaching the peak level of your 'pissitivity limit' (if such word exists), helpless and mad yet unable to hurl weapons of mass destruction against that individual that you end up venting out your frustration using a pen and a paper (or his/her photograph) instead?

This was the 'emotion' (or 'sparkPLUG' if 'emotion' is too corny for you) running through me when i was creating Pandora. But instead of photo-manniping a pic of someone ([the someone who now happens to be proofreading this work] who shall remain nameless... we're ok now though) I decided to use a poser model and implant her with symmetrical horns on her head which at that moment symbolized her perfectly. (Yes you're lovely and filled with horns and tough to handle sometimes... these days replace that word 'sometimes' with 'most of the times').

The horns are a part of an old artwork- not too old considering that the LOS2002 wall was created last March of 2002. Rotated and re-colored, re-saturated... sharpened and resized to give the artwork the metallic green effect after removing some elements, the LOS2002 wall become an integral part of this new artwork.

Yes... you can always re-use some old artworks of yours. Always leave the .PSD file intact.

To come up with the purdy green effect i used the following photoshop processes:

	»	Image.Adjust.Hue/Saturation... (CTRL+U)
	»	Image.Adjust.Channel Mixer...
	»	Image.Adjust.Levels... (CTRL+L)
	»	Filter.Sharpen.Unsharp Mask... (To make things more metallic and crisp)
	»	Don't tell me i still have to include the process for rotating and mirroring images here?

Do experiment until you achieve your desired output/appearance when you're using these processes. If you're unsatisfied with the results, the Edit.UNDO (CTRL+Z) button is always a click away. You can also use Adobe Photoshop's History window.

Do memorize the shortcut keys... one day soon you'll be glad you made the effort. And work with larger images and re-size it when everything's done. It would make things crisper that way while hiding some 'imperfectly done' parts in your image. (I'm compiling all these tips and tricks into another scribble which i'll be uploading later)

Yup... it is a 'poser lady'. While there are some artists online that whine everytime they see a poser model inside an artwork, i always have fun working with them... and it doesn't trouble me that much unlike some self-proclaimed-3D-purist out there. Besides it's how we use things/elements that counts PLUS the imagination (Yes imagination not EGO).

There are a lot of poser communities out there that share resources and models for free (renderosity.com is one)... which make life better, not to mention, more entertaining. This one is a modified PIO model created by CYO-Bit Labs.

There were a lot of suggestions stating that i should have done more photomanip work on the forehead part where the metallic objects meld with the flesh instead of blurring it. Maybe i should have done that. But this piece was a mere release of tension done in four hours (exluding the already finished LOS2002 wall which took days), in between finishing some database programs.

Perhaps the hardest part during the creation of this artwork is deciding what title i'll be using. It took me quite some time, a couple or more of phrases before i settled with 'Pandora' which if you aren't aware is a woman from Greek/Roman mythology which also happens to be the chosen alias of one of Anne Rice's most ingenius vampires in her ever evolving Vampire Chronicles. (Btw, don't base your knowledge on that Queen of the Damned movie... the book is a million times more philosophical and infinitely better than that teen flick in disguise.)

The whole process was fun excluding the fight of course. Releasing the pressure that bugs your very core by working on some graphics-related artworks is a much healthier, safer, and more productive alternative to targeting impossibly high buildings with 747s. Do try doing it one of these days. Besides, this is the second piece that came out during a fight/ramble. The first one was Destronica.

The .PSD file is still intact (as most of my files are)... in the near future I might add the full body plus more manip/time on this one and maybe sell a poster or two of this artwork. I have always wanted to decorate our room or even the office cube with some of my artworks. Hopefully... with the proper and sufficient resources, i can do that one of these days.